We should ensure that we are trying to understand the importance and substance of the story that the SME is trying to tell us. If they do not possess all of the facts we seek, we can at least ensure that we have fully understood and engaged with the person who is trying to help us right now… without trying to rewrite the story into some preconceived narrative more typical of our own experience.
An interview with Ron Fisher, Ph.D (the founder of cognitive interviewing) contained the observation that domain knowledge and subject matter expertise are not always the ultimate requirement for an interviewer – effective listening, interviewing and communication skills may play a vital part in the best and most effective interviews. Experts, as interviewers, may become pre-occupied with their own expertise, focusing on extracting information from a witness, where the interviewer feels that he or she possesses the same or even greater knowledge than the witness SME.
Interruptions, leading questions, or even an un-empathetic or dismissive interviewing style may creep in to derail the “interview relationship”, and then the interview itself may break down to the point where the interviewer ends up effectively “telling” their interview subject what happened in their own project, and projecting their own experience onto the actual events.
Does the possession of specific domain knowledge have to result in an “interventionist” and less effective interview? Of course not. And to be fair, there would be those who could argue that re-framing and intervening in the interview process merely prevents the waste of a whole lot of interviewing time, with more satisfactory results all round. However, if we have “set the context and framed the expectations” at the very beginning of the interview, then perhaps we need to develop our own trust in the flow of things, as well as improved techniques for ensuring that effective dynamic is preserved during the interview itself, and for framing and redirecting in ways that are less “interruptive” and more circular and cooperative.
If there is anything that can make me better at what I do, I’m all in favour of it.
Bruce Madole